Positioned at the fork of the Leaf and Bouie Rivers - the heart of
south Mississippi’s rolling piney woods -
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, provides a unique
blend of affordability and high standard of
living for nearly 50,000 residents.
Hattiesburg is the educational, retail
and medical center for more than a quarter
of a million people who live throughout
the southeast Mississippi region and is also
the home of the University of Southern
Mississippi, William Carey College, and
Camp Shelby.
Hattiesburg is known as the “Hub City”
because it is located at the intersections of
Interstate 59 and U.S. Highways 49, 98 and
11. Hattiesburg is centrally located less than
100 miles from the state capital of Jackson
as well as the Gulf Coast, New Orleans and
Mobile.
This growing micropolitan area that
includes Hattiesburg, Forrest and Lamar
Counties, was designated a Metropolitan
Statistical Area in 1994 with a combined
population of more than 100,000 residents.
• Healthcare
• Most Popular Destinations
• Retirement Communities
• Business Relocation
Continued economic expansion during
the past few years has made Hattiesburg one
of the most dynamic and fastest growing
areas in the Southeast.
With its economic beginnings in the timber industry of the late 1800s, to the mobilization of the military in 1915 and World
War II at Camp Shelby, to the prosperous
growth of the 1990s,
Hattiesburg stands ready
to move into the 21st
century as a progressive,
economically healthy
community that nurtures
a quality of life second
to none.
Livability
During the last several years, Hattiesburg
has been recognized nationally for its livability including the following areas:
Our City’s History
Hattiesburg was
founded in 1882 by
Captain William H.
Hardy, pioneer lumberman and civil engineer.
Early settlers to the area
were of Scottish, Irish,
and English desent who
came from Georgia and
the Carolinas, attracted by the vast acreage
of virgin pine timberlands. This was an area
of rich promise at a time when renewed
development of the South was getting under
way.
The City of Hattiesburg was incorporated in 1884 with a population of approximately 400. Originally called Twin Forks
and later Gordonville, Hardy gave the city
its final name of Hattiesburg, in honor of
his wife Hattie.
Also in 1884, the railroad, known as
the Southern Railway System, was built
from Meridian through Hattiesburg to New
Orleans. The commercial value of the great
virgin timber stands was quickly recognized
and, for a time, timberland was available for
as little as 50 cents to $1.50 an acre. Mills
sprang up; naval store plants came on the
heels of the timber industry, and turpentine
stills became as numerous as the sawmills.
The completion of the Gulf and Ship
Island Railroad from Gulfport to Jackson,
now part of the Illinois Central System, ran
through Hattiesburg and ushered in the
real lumber boom in 1897. Though it was
20 years in the building, the railroad more
than fulfilled its promise. It gave the state a
deep water harbor, more than doubled the
population of towns along its route, built
the City of Gulfport and made Hattiesburg
a railroad center.
After World War I, Hattiesburg found
a new way of life became necessary. The
people of the region were able to adjust
themselves and proved willing find new and
diverse ways of making a living bringing
with them further population booms.
